Word Origin & History

ascendant late 14c., astrological use is earliest, from O.Fr. ascendant (n., adj.), from L. ascendentem (nom. ascendans), prp. of ascendere "to mount, ascend, go up" (see ascend). Sense "moving upward, rising" is recorded from 1590s. In the ascendant "ruling, dominant" (not, as is often thought, "rising") is from 1670s.